• Solar panels installed at the Harris Nature Center in 2012.

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - At the March 15th Meridian Township Board meeting the Solar Panel Project that has been in the works for quite some time now was not only approved by the members of the board but was also amended and approved by an unanimous 6-0 vote.

The amendment includes increasing the number of solar panels from the original 5 being funded to now 10 solar panels. The community solar panel project was projected to cost around $2,000.00 for five panels and has been updated to $4,000.00 with the increased number of panels.

The amendment was suggested by Trustee John Veenstra, who sees the doubling of the original panels as a small investment compared to the projected benefits that they will provide for the community in the future years to come.

“We’ve long had many expressions from the public and from this board, and it’s in our goals that the township wants to do much more with solar. I think this is an excellent first step. I think we should just regard this as a first step and I also strongly believe that we should be putting solar on some of our own buildings,” says Meridian Township Trustee, John R. Veenstra.

Other board members also feel that solar panels should be implemented in township buildings. “I do think that the motion Trustee Veenstra changed from five to ten, it really is a minimal cost investment, the numbers will show up a little better to actually measure things in the long run. I also think that we should absolutely look at having a township building having a solar demonstration project, we talked about that during our board goals and the Service Center of the Township Municipal Building, any number of buildings could work as a pilot site,” says Brett Dreyfus, Meridian Township Clerk.

The next step for the board could be a solar demonstration project in one of their buildings but for now they are focusing on getting the solar panels up and running. The 10 panels are expected to produce enough power to replace 48,000 pounds of coal over a minimum 25-year span.

The panels will install them at the re-purposed landfill at Burcham Park.